* 



) 





. 







f 







mi 

 ingi 



rl; 



:al 



ibeK 



.flit 



a 2, 

 me:-' 



of 



. 



than 





f 





in- r 



Ch. II.] 



ORIENTAL COSMOGONY. 



11 



great Yu was celebrated for having ' opened nine channels to 

 draw off the waters/ which ' covered the low hills and bathed 



srhest mountains 



bh 



Yellow 



fe 



& 



miffht 



Yaou 



modern 



the 



Ions plains of China under water. In 



bursting of the banks of an artificial canal, into which a 



portion of the Yellow River has been turned, has repeatedly 



given i 



most 



perpetfial anxiety to the government. It is easy, therefore, 



much greater may 



if this valley was ever convulsed by a violent earthquake * 



Humboldt 



Cumana 



an earthquake in 1766, a season of extraordinary fertility 

 ensued, in consequence of the great rains which accompanied 

 the subterranean convulsions. ' The Indians,' he says, ' cele- 

 brated, after the ideas of an antique superstition, by festivals 

 and dancing, the destruction of the world and the approach- 



eneration.'f 

 The existence of such rites among the rude nations of 

 South America is most important, as showing what effects 

 may be produced by local catastrophes, recurring at distant 

 intervals of time, on the minds of a barbarous and unculti- 

 vated race. I shall point out in the sequel how the tradition 

 of a deluge among the Araucanian Indians may be explained, 

 by reference to great earthquake-waves which have repeatedly 

 rolled over part of Chili since the first recorded flood of 1590. 

 The legend also of the ancient Peruvians of an inundation 

 many years before the reign of the Incas, in which only six 

 persons were saved on a float, relates to a region which has 

 more than once been overwhelmed by inroads of the ocean 

 since the days of Pizarro. I might refer the reader to my 

 account of the submergence of a wide area in Cutch so lately as 

 the year 1819, when a single tower only of the fort of Sindree 



* See Davis on ' The Chinese,' pnb- 



t Humboldt et Bonpland, Voy. Kelat 



lished by the Soc. for theDiffus. of Use. Hist. vol. i. p. 30. 

 Know, vol. i. pp. 137, 147. 



